Why doesn’t BJP appoint a Muslim president? Digvijaya Singh to PM’s jibe at Congress

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh on Tuesday, 15 April, said the BJP should appoint a Muslim party president instead of suggesting his party do so, and added that prominent leaders from the Muslim community had already held that position in the grand old party in the past.

He also alleged that a "disturbing trend" was being observed in the country wherein minority communities were being treated as enemies and falsely implicated by the BJP-led governments at the Centre and in states.

His statement comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Haryana that if the Congress really has sympathy for Muslims, it should appoint a Muslim as its president and give 50 per cent of its tickets to people from the community.

When reporters asked Digvijaya Singh about the PM's remark, he said, "Muslims had earlier held the position of president (of the Congress) and we are proud of it. If they (BJP) are so concerned, why don't they make a person from the Muslim community their party president?"

During the pre-Independence period, prominent Muslim leaders — including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Mukhtar Ahmad Ansari, Syed Hasan Imam and Nawab Syed Mohammed Bahadur — had served as Congress presidents.

When asked whether he feels that a minority community was being targeted, Singh said, "A disturbing trend is taking place in the country where minority communities are being treated as enemies by the central government and in states ruled by the BJP's so-called ‘double engine’ government."

"They are being falsely implicated, harassed and the constitutional provisions meant to protect their interests are being ignored.

"In April 2021, when riots broke out at several places, the Supreme Court had issued detailed guidelines on how states should act to control communal violence," the Rajya Sabha member said.

Those guidelines clearly outlined the steps governments must take to prevent such incidents, he said.

On a query about West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's statement that she will not allow the new Waqf Act to be implemented in her state, Singh said, "...I want to say one thing, whoever spreads communalism in this country and whether it is radical Hindu, radical Muslim, radical Sikh or any sect, action should be taken against them."

He alleged that the Indian Secular Front was instigating the Muslim youth there.

"For 10 years (as Madhya Pradesh chief minister), I did not spare anyone spreading hatred towards other religions — be it Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian. Because of that, not a single riot or incident of disturbance took place in Madhya Pradesh," he said.

Singh was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh from 1993 to 2003.

On the issue of a Dalit groom not allowed to sit on a horse during a marriage ceremony in Indore district, Singh said it was a matter of shame for all that untouchability was still in vogue today.

"Yesterday, the chief minister went to Babasaheb Ambedkar’s memorial and gave a long speech in which he talked about following the path as shown by Dr Ambedkar, but even today a groom from a Scheduled Caste cannot ride a horse and cannot enter the temple — this is a crime.

"Action should be taken against all those people who stopped his entry into the temple and objected to his sitting on a horse."

On the controversy surrounding a BJP MLA's son forcibly entering a temple in Dewas district even after it was closed, Singh said even if the people associated with the BJP do whatever they want, the police do not take any action against them.